This project will collect and analyze new data on South Africa's pension system, in order to measure the effects of the system on family dynamics, labor supply, health, and other aspects of well-being in South African households. By developing and evaluating specialized methods for gathering household data on the receipt of pension benefits and their impacts, the project will also advance researchers ability to study pension systems in general. The project will devise, test, and apply innovative methods for collecting household data relevant to describing and assessing the South African pension system, in a manner appropriate to the social and economic conditions of the country. The project will use these data to study whether the pension system (a) improves health status and overall well-being of the elderly and those who live with them, (b) gives the elderly a stronger voice in household decision making or affects family dynamics in other ways, and (c) serves as a disincentive to work. Interest in the design, establishment, and reform of pension systems has grown considerably over the past decade, prompted by increasing longevity, declining fertility, and concern over the health and economic security of the aged. Empirical research on the social and economic impacts ofdifferent pension system designs is much needed, however. South Africa's system, which is universal, non-contributory, and means-tested, and which adds significantly to financial resources of households that include pensioners (especially poor blacks), provides a fertile opportunity for studying the impact of pension systems. The project is designed to overcome some of the obstacles that have hampered previous efforts to understand South Africa's pension system. Standard household surveys include only a superficial treatment of pension receipts and do not permit many central issues to be researched. To address this deficiency, an interdisciplinary team of US and South African researchers will develop a survey instrument focused on the interaction between the pension system and individuals' behavior and well-being. They will test it on a small number of households, refine it, and administer it in a 750-household sample. Preliminary analysis of the survey results is expected to contribute to ongoing pension policy discussions in South Africa, to clarify issues that need to be resolved before a full-scale follow-up survey can be carried out, and to provide useful points of comparison for studies in other countries.